SOURCE: “Cather's Archbishop and Travel Writing,” in Western American Literature, Vol. XVII, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 3-12.

In the following essay, Stouck argues that, rather than falling into the novel genre, Death Comes for the Archbishop follows the tradition of North American travel writing.

There has always been a problem classifying Death Comes for the Archbishop. Early reviewers of the book said it could hardly be termed a novel because it had no plot. Willa Cather in turn suggested the term “narrative.”¹ As time passed her critics fell into the habit of referring to the Archbishop as an historical novel. Certainly the book is set in the nineteenth century and is more or less faithful to the history of the Catholic Church in the American Southwest. In her letter to The Commonweal Cather says she wanted to do something in the style of legend, which is rather different from...